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YouTube Strikes Deal With Disney For Original Content Channel

Last week, news broke of YouTube partnering with dozens of celebrities and media companies—from Jay-Z and Pharrell to The Onion and Pitchfork—for premium original content channels in a cumulative deal worth about $100 million. Disney can now be added to that list of partners, with YouTube set to pay the entertainment giant between $10-15 million to produce its own channel.

The deal won’t see Disney tap into their archives of movies and content, but rather create new shorts, such as a video series based on the web app “Where’s My Water?”

As the New York Times points out, the move highlights Disney’s fading influence—Pixar and Jerry Bruckheimer keep Disney’s film business going, as opposed to more traditional Disney properties—with the company looking to YouTube as an a destination for “cool,” even amongst its younger demographic. Disney.com lost 5 million unique visitors over the course of last summer and overall, the company has lost over $300 million in the last few quarters.